Unfortunately, the Education spending bill the House passed this week shortchanges such opportunities for Arkansas’s children by under funding their education needs.  For Arkansas, education cuts fall more than $85 million below spending levels authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act and the IDEA Reauthorization Act.  

This means our state will lose $52 million in Title I grants that help raise academic performance of students, $12 million in IDEA grants to help school districts educate children with disabilities, $6 million in After-School Program funding that goes to provide academic help and other enrichment activities for young people, and more than $3 million in Teacher quality grants that provide professional development for our teachers.    

This bill is another example of the heavy cost of the Republican tax cut on Arkansas families and children; it is crowding out other spending priorities like investing in education.  The programs being cut in Arkansas represent missed opportunities for our children and for the future of our state.  Education is one area where we cannot afford to cut corners.